Potential
by Catwho
Summary: An easy mission goes awry when Lucy is doused with a mysterious liquid. Now she's feeling very strange, and a certain dragon slayer can't help but notice how weird she's acting around him. A NaLu citrus orchard in five parts.
1. Pomelos

**This is that NaLu thing I mentioned at the end of Magic under the Influence. Enjoy!**

**They belong to Hiro Mashima, but I think we can agree he drags the romances out way too long.**

**A pomelo is a large sweet citrus fruit, sometimes considered the least bitter of the citrus family. **

* * *

It all began as a normal mission.

Lucy, Natsu, and Happy were to take out a dark mage who had been dousing people with a potion that induced sleep and them robbing them of all their valuables. His last victims had been around the docks of Port Harjuan, so the team was scouring the area for the criminal.

Lucy couldn't help but think back fondly to her first meeting with Natsu – how he had joyfully invited her to join Fairy Tail without a second thought. They were family now, and she shared a bond with all of them that extended far beyond anything she'd ever felt with her blood relatives. Even her beloved mother had often gently taken her father's side in many matters of Lucy's upbringing, because she had wanted their little girl to grow up to be a true lady.

Not so with Fairy Tail. Fiercely loyal to one another, they shared a bond of sacrifice and respect that no one could defeat – no monsters, no dark guilds, no menacing plots involving time travel and parallel worlds.

Finding the bandit proved to be the most difficult part of their mission. They had no descriptions to go on, since his sleep abilities knocked people out to turn them into easy targets. As for dispatching him, their greatest risk was being hit with the sleep potion themselves . Lucy had suggested nose plugs, on the reasonable assumption that the potions were scent based, like Ichiya's perfumes. The small plugs they'd obtained blocked their nostrils, but were not too obvious from a distance. They didn't quite fit into Happy's tiny nose, but they would have to do. Natsu complained that being without a sense of smell was like being half blinded.

With their noses safely plugged, it was a small matter of setting Lucy out as bait – a poor little rich girl on the wrong side of town. It was a role that was easy enough for her to slip into – a nice dress, some costume jewelry, and a fat purse. She walked along the business boardwalks where most of the robberies had occurred, looking for all the world like a socialite trying to enjoy a nice walk in the wrong place. Natsu and Happy followed behind her at a discreet distance.

All of their assumptions had been correct – a man emerged from an alley after Lucy passed, and quietly lobbed a vial onto the sidewalk just in front of her. A cloud of black smoke quickly rose up from the vial, and Lucy started coughing when she inhaled it before gracefully crumpling to the ground. She could be a pretty good actress sometimes.

The bandit began ruffling through Lucy's purse, looking for a wallet. He never noticed as Natsu approached him from behind and gave him a solid wallop on the head, knocking the man cleanly unconscious.

"Good job, Natsu!" Happy cheered, and help Natsu drag the man off Lucy.

Lucy stood up, grimacing as she looked down on the man at her feet. She was glad she couldn't smell anything. He was filthy and greasy, and he moaned as Natsu sat him upright bound him with a rope.

"I think we should find the local police as soon as we can," she said, trying not to shudder. "He's going to wake up any minute."

"Yeah, that's what the mission sheet said to do," Natsu agreed, and stood next to her, hands on his hips, staring down at the bandit.

The man regained his consciousness then, staring at them through slitted eyes.

"Guild mages," he hissed angrily.

"It's high time you paid for your crimes!" Lucy scolded. "Anyone who uses magic to hurt people or steal from them is scum."

The bandit shrugged. "So says you, miss." He gave her a slimy, wolfish grin, revealing missing teeth. "After life has knocked you around and society has given up on you, there's not much else left to do but fend for yourself. In fact," and here his creepy grin grew even wider, "I'm gonna give you kids a free lesson in the school of hard knocks right now."

He bit down on something in his mouth, and a plume of yellow smoke came out. She felt a small sting on the back of her neck, and instinctively reached up to touch it, glancing behind her. Nothing was there. She looked back at the dark magician, and saw that there were two gossamer strings coming out of his mouth, formed from the smoke. One reached out to Natsu, and one was connected to her.

"What the…?"

"You fancy guild types," the man muttered, giving her a creepy stare. Lucy shuddered. "You don't even stop to think about the resources of the people you're hunting." He smiled again, and in between his broken teeth there was an uncorked potion bottle. He spit out the vial. "The nose plugs are a novel idea, that's for sure. But that only blocks the sleeping potion part of my 'special' stuff. You still have to _breathe_…"

Suddenly, Lucy felt her body lose control, and she went stiff as a board. Natsu yelped as the same thing happened to him.

"Natsu! Lucy!" Happy cried, unsure what was happening. Natsu was suddenly untying the bandit, clearly against his own volition. When the ropes were untied, the man stood up and rubbed his head where Natsu had hit him.

"Put him down!" Lucy hollered, struggling against the invisible strings that were preventing her from moving.

"The girly is feisty! Even if she's not rich. I have a _special _present for you then, girly," the creepy mage said, rubbing his arms. "Feisty girls need to learn their place." He uncorked a third potion flask, and tossed liquid contents on Lucy's face. She flinched and recoiled from the stuff, but with her arms and legs controlled by the bandit she was unable to do anything about it.

It wasn't acid, Lucy realized immediately, nor was it another sleeping potion. She didn't know what it was, and it didn't seem to have any effect on her.

"You big meanie! What did you do to Lu-Ack!" Now Happy, too, was caught up in the puppet master's strings. His Era wings dissolved and he fell to the ground with a painful sounding thunk. The impact knocked out his nose plugs, and he quickly fell asleep from the vapors still in the air. Well, Lucy had been right about the scent based sleep potion, anyway.

"Why don't you two get cozy while I take my leave?" the man said, and Lucy and Natsu began stepping toward each other, straining and struggling against the forces that controlled them.

"You bastard! I'm going to kick your butt!" Natsu protested, even as he and Lucy were pushed right up against each other.

"What is this creep doing?" Lucy muttered under her breath, blushing fiercely as she was forced into an awkward embrace with Natsu. The dragon slayer too had turned a burning crimson as her breasts were pressed against him, and his hands forced to grasp her bottom. She found her hands reaching up to pull his head down toward her.

Both helpless to stop the inevitable, Lucy and Natsu's faces inched closer. She saw dangerous anger in Natsu's eyes – and fear.

"Now kiss!" the creepy man said, a note of utterly delighted perversion in his voice. "Ta ta for now, guild mages!" Lucy saw him turn and run away hurriedly from the corner of her eye. Dammit, that was _rent money_ escaping!

She had more immediate problems to deal with, like kissing Natsu. Lucy's first kiss was _not _supposed to be like this. It wasn't supposed to be with Natsu either, although a little part of her body was actually very thrilled about it. The majority of her mind was protesting against the circumstances. The thrilled part was noticing how soft his lips were, and how wonderful his scruffy hair felt threaded between her hands, and how very much she wanted the hand that was grasping her bottom to slip into the waistband of her dress and touch her skin directly. Their nose plugs clicked against each other as their faces shifted. Pervy mage thankfully didn't make them French kiss or else she was certain she'd die of shame and embarrassment. As it was, they both had to pause briefly and gasp for air, since they had to breathe through their mouths. But each time they did, the dark mage's control on them returned, and they were forced to resume smooching again.

It lasted for several minutes. She wasn't sure when or if her spell wore off and she was just kissing him of her own volition, but she knew exactly when Natsu's spell wore off because his hand shot off her bottom and he shoved her away from him so fast that they both fell to the ground.

"What the hell was that?!" he yelped, still blushing fiercely. "What a perverted old creep. Has he been putting people to sleep and then _making out_ with them?"

"You dumbass, he's been robbing them!" Lucy yelled back, trying not to be disappointed that the unexpected kiss with Natsu had ended so abruptly. "He just did that to us to… to escape."

She glanced over at the poor Exceed, who was still sound asleep.

They both panted for air, still unsure about what to think about that encounter.

Finally, Natsu managed to state the obvious. "Well, he's escaped."

"Yeah," Lucy said, unable to think clearly. Her body had reacted _way_ too strongly to that kiss. She still felt the burning in her blood. She had wanted to keep kissing Natsu, to pull that wonderful salmon colored head in between her breasts and –

Mavis, what was wrong with her? She'd just been body-control violated by her best friend and all she could think about was _continuing_ _where they left off?_

"I don't feel so well," she moaned, wishing she could take out the horrible nose plug and breathe.

"Neither do I," Natsu said, looking distinctly green. His face had the look it always did while he was on a train or a boat.

"That wasn't even a vehicle!" she said sternly. "Is the idea of kissing me so horrible that you're going to vomit over it?"

"Just getting my body taken over was bad!" he said, his face clearing up a bit as he fought off the sensation. "I felt so helpless."

"Me too… let's just get out of here," she said, standing up and brushing herself off. Her pretty dress had stains on it from where she'd landed in the alleyway when Natsu shoved her. "Pervy robber has surely skipped town by now." She glanced down the port strip but the streets were clear. For all she knew, he could have had a getaway boat.

"Awww man, no reward money for us?" Natsu scowled. "I'm gonna find him and kick his ass for that!"

"Not this time," Lucy said with a sigh. "We could hang out here for a few days to see if he's still around, I guess. But if he's smart, he'll move on to a different town. And I think he's a pretty clever one…" He was no run of the mill thief, what with being a potions master and thinking to have a mind control vial inside his _mouth_ in case he was caught and his hands were tied up. "Let's just go back to the guild."

Natsu gently picked up the passed out Happy, and the team may their way out of the alleys of the Port. Both Natsu and Lucy were silent, thinking about the implications of what had occurred between them.

* * *

Lucy felt strange as they rode the train back to Magnolia. Natsu was dozing on her lap, as usual when they were forced into vehicular travel, his face flinching in his sleep as his motion sickness tormented him. She had a borrowed book from Levy to keep her entertained, as she usually did on missions that involved train rides, but she was having trouble concentrating on the words.

They had done this dozens, maybe a hundred times since she had joined Fairy Tail and they'd formed a team, but this time was different. As she looked down on his sleeping face, all she could think about was how close his mouth was to her…. well, her _lady bits_ while he was sleeping on her lap. And how wonderful that pouty mouth had felt against her own. And how crisp and crinkly his hair had been under her hands.

_What the hell is wrong with me?_ she moaned internally.

This was _Natsu_. Her partner her, best friend, and all around clueless dumbass. There had been a few times, very briefly, when she'd thought he might have romantic aspirations toward her, but those moments always ended with him doing something stupid and childish, like accidentally punching her in the face or demanding that they dig for buried treasure.

Yet that forced kiss had woken something inside her, something that was making her blood sing and her mind buzz and certain parts of her body ache in ways they had never ached before.

Absently, she stroked his jaw line. He stirred in his sleep under her touch.

Her mind began wandering again, to how luscious his muscles were underneath his one sleeved shirt. She kind of missed his old outfit, the one that had given her an unobstructed view of his washboard abs, but her memory was vivid enough. He exercised enough that his chest and back were almost hairless, except for the faintest whisper of pinkish hair that started at his bellybutton and pointed toward…

Heavens above, was Lucy actually _fantasizing_ about the boy in her lap?

Her breathing had grown shorter, and the car suddenly seemed stifling hot. She had the urge to strip out of her dress and put on her usual halter top and mini skirt. Or nothing at all.

Would Natsu like her in nothing but an apron?

"Arrrrrrgh!"

With determination, Lucy stuck her nose into the book, trying to think of anything besides how wonderful it would be to kiss Natsu again.

* * *

"Levy, I think I'm sick."

Lucy was leaning over the table in the center of the guild. After she and Natsu had returned from their mission empty handed, she'd sent him home with the still zonked out Happy, and then practically ran into the guild, hoping to get some girl-type advice from Levy. She had a feeling she knew what was going on, but Levy was the only girl she knew that was in a long term relationship with a dragon slayer, and the script mage would surely be willing to share that info with Lucy.

She was in luck, and Team Shadow Gear was in between missions.

"You do look a bit flushed, Lu-chan," Levy agreed, leaning forward and smoothing away Lucy's bangs from her forehead. "What happened out on that mission?"

Lucy groaned. She didn't want to talk about it. But she had to.

"Um… the bandit uses a body control technique with his potions."

Levy's face paled, her mind obviously jumping to very bad conclusions.

"He didn't hurt you, did he?"

Lucy buried her face in her hands. "No, he didn't physically touch me, or Natsu. He did knock Happy out, but I think that he'll be okay." She took a deep breath. "Levy, you've been dating Gajeel since the games, right?"

Levy's pallor faded away to a faint blush. "Yes," she said in a tiny voice.

"Because I remember reading something about dragon slayers in Sorcerer's Weekly…"

"Oh?"

"That they," and here Lucy took a deep breath, "they can go into a sort of… um… 'blood fever' I think was the name…. and infect their partner with it-"

"Oh that," Levy said dismissively. "It was Sting who told Jason that. Gajeel said it's all a lie that Sting made up to explain why he dated so many girls." Levy giggled. "Dragon slayer magic is to _fight _dragons, not to mate with them." Something clicked in her head. "What, did Natsu kiss you and now you think you have dragon cooties?"

Lucy wanted to melt through the floor in embarrassment. Dammit, Sting! Here all this time she'd been watching the dragon slayers, waiting to see them go "into season" or something. And it was a lie!

"Kind of..."

"Wait… so Natsu DID kiss you?"

"Not by choice," Lucy said grimly. "That dark mage…. He _made_ us kiss." She shuddered at the memory of losing control of her body. "Ever since them I've felt… really strange."

"How so?"

"I'm… hot all the time." Lucy pulled the strap of her sleeveless top to vent her chest. "And I can't stop thinking about that kiss… and other things."

"Hmmm," Levy said thoughtfully. "Are you _sure_ there's nothing else that happened?"

Lucy replayed the events in her head – how suddenly their fortunes had turned, how he had splashed her with that potion –

"Wait," she said, remembering. "He tossed some liquid on me and said it was a 'special present' for me. Could that liquid have given me an illness?"

Levy quirked her mouth off to one side. "If he really is a potions master, then it's entirely possible that the liquid he tossed on you was an aphrodisiac."

It was Lucy's turn to pale. "No," she said, burying her face into her folded arms.

"You said it yourself," Levy shrugged, but she patted Lucy's shoulder sympathetically. "You're hot and flushed and you can't stop thinking about making out with Natsu."

Lucy's head shot up. "I never said that it was making out!"

"But it's true, right?"

Lucy's only answer was a half-gurgle. Levy was being _mean._

Levy leaned close to her and whispered. "I think the symptoms you're feeling are, um, arousal."

Lucy would not have picked that word, but that was probably the most accurate description of her situation. She was hot and bothered and really _really_ turned on with no outlet for her frustration. "So in other words, it isn't Natsu who is 'in heat'… it's me. _I'm _the one with dragon cooties."

"Pretty much." Levy sat back down. "You could try asking Porlyusca for a cure –"

"No way in hell!"

"Or you could just wait a few days and see if it wears off."

Lucy shook her head vigorously. "I can't go around thinking this and feeling this for days!" Lucy wailed.

"Why not?"

"At this rate I'm going to jump Natsu's bones!"

"Oh come on, Lu-chan. Maybe this is just the push that Natsu needs." She winked at her best friend. "Dragon slayers may be dense idiots built for fighting, but they have a better sense of smell than anyone else. You're probably radiating pheromones right now and Natsu might react to that."

"That's it. I _most definitely_ need to go into hiding for a few days." Lucy stood up, fanning herself off lightly. "If Natsu asks where I am, tell him I have the flu and he is absolutely _not_ to come visit me at my apartment."

Lucy fled the guild, thankful that Natsu had not been around for that exchange.

Because the next time she saw him, if this stupid aphrodisiac didn't wear off, she was really going to pounce on him.

* * *

**This is my response to all the "dragons in heat" fics out there. Now it's Lucy's turn to be in on the fun. Stay tuned for part two: Oranges!**

**Also, google "Know your meme now kiss" to get the scoop on the image that matches that scene. Hehehehehehehe.**


	2. Oranges

**An orange is a sweet citrus fruit. Did you know that all citrus fruits around the world are part of the same genus, and the individual species hybridize readily? (Pineapple is not a member of the citrus genus, however, so it's technically not a citrus fruit!)**

* * *

Once Lucy arrived back at her apartment, she decided she was going to try some tried and true methods to overcome her little "problem."

First, the old proverbial cold shower. She could only stand a minute of truly icy water, however, and finally had to settle for lukewarm.

That didn't help.

In fact, it made things worse for her, as she rubbed her body down with a scratchy loofah sponge, and her treacherous imagination began to picture Natsu's hands in its place. Teasing across her nipples. Nipping at her collarbone. Kissing inside her thigh…

She quickly shut the water off as soon as she was rinsed, and immediately put in as many layers of clothing as she could stand. That wasn't much, since she was still flushed and sweaty, but she was determined to be as modest to herself as she could be for the moment.

Her plan fell apart when the fabric chafing across her skin turned her on even more than her hands on her bare skin had!

_This is bad,_ she thought, gritting her teeth in frustration as she stripped back out of her jeans and put on a comfortable mini skirt instead.

Even that proved to be too much for her overheating body, so she found herself wearing an old bikini bathing suit and trying desperately not to think about all the skin that was exposed.

"I need a distraction," she said aloud, and decided to try writing for a bit. If she could drown out the sensations of her body and just focus on the world that her characters inhabited, she could quite possibly ignore the visions of Natsu in her mind. Natsu, groping her. Natsu, kissing her. Natsu, his salmon colored head in front of her as he knelt, his little pink tongue extending…

"Moooou!" she cried, and dropped her head onto her table, her pen clattering to the floor. Her characters refused to come out and play while Natsu was occupying her thoughts, it seemed.

Standing up, frustrated and miserable, she made her way over to her couch, where she plopped down and treated herself to the luxury of a good cry.

* * *

She must have dozed off. The sun was much lower in the sky now. She glanced at the clock and saw that it was past dinner time. Her stomach growled.

Well, Lucy thought as she plodded to her kitchen, maybe food will take my mind off –

She cursed herself, as she actually had not been thinking of Natsu until that very moment. As soon as her brain latched onto an image of the pink haired idiot, the feelings returned in full force, and her legs began to shake, so great was her need.

"Natsu," she whispered, wishing he would defy her orders and come visit her so she could throw him onto her bed and ride him into the sunset.

She fixed herself a light dinner, just enough to satiate the craving of her belly. A few pieces of chocolate gave her a nice temporary satisfaction fix as well, but it really only whetted her appetite for a meal that involved certain parts of a dragon slayer's naked body.

"I wonder," she mused to the wall. "What if the only reason I'm thinking about Natsu is because he's the only guy I've been around lately?" Maybe she should try to think about the other guys of Fairy Tail.

She plopped back onto the couch, and closed her eyes, concentrating as hard as she could about the men she knew. There was Gray, whose naked body was equally as splendid as Natsu's. She'd gotten that particular eyeful more times than she could count, thanks to his bizarre stripping habits.

Try as she might, though, the half remembered pictures of Gray with no clothes didn't give her the dry mouth and heart palpitations than images of Natsu fully clothed did.

Oh well. Juvia would kill her anyway.

Elfman, Laxus, Gajeel, even the non-Tenrou men, and men outside of Fairy Tail like Jellal, all fell victim to her mental scrutiny. And all fell short compared to the dragon slayer.

Maybe… it was because she'd shared that kiss with Natsu. Maybe the potion just latched on to the first person she saw after it was tossed on?

Maybe she needed a real life male in front of her when Natsu wasn't around to cause the sensations to switch to that male?

Bah. She couldn't exactly go back to the guild and start groping one of the guys randomly, hoping to suddenly become sexually attracted to them. That wouldn't solve anything. At least fantasizing to Natsu was safe.

Were there any guy members of the guild she had missed in her list…?

Oh, of course!

She grabbed her keys, kicking herself for not thinking of this sooner.

"Open the gate of the Lion! Leo!"

In a flash of magic, her strongest Celestial Spirit appeared in front of her.

"Hey baby," he said smoothly, and reached forward to take her hand and kiss it gently. "I like the bathing suit, is this a private fashion show just for me?"

Lucy's heart began to thud in her chest, but it was different from the palpitations she had been experiencing since that morning.

"I needed to ask you a favor," she said, taking a deep breath.

"Anything for you, babe."

"Would you kiss me?"

Loke's eyebrows shot up in astonishment, and his face split into a wide grin. "Oh, Lucy, I knew you'd come around to me one of these days!"

Now her heart was thumping wildly in her chest, as Loke stepped toward her, looking for all the world as if he was about to grab her, sweep her off her feet, and make out with her seriously on the couch. But her heart was pounding in abject terror, not arousal, and she immediately regretted her decision to summon the lustful lion when she was in such a vulnerable state.

He loomed closer, embraced her fully, bent her backwards, his lips just an inch away from hers… and then he bopped her on the nose.

She blinked up at him.

"Just kidding," he said, and then pulled her back so that she was standing up right.

"Why not?" she said, ready to burst into tears again.

"Because you're not in love with me," he said evenly.

"H-how do you know?"

Loke sighed and put his hand on his forehead. "How could I miss it, you mean? I'll always be second best in your heart. You're madly in love with Natsu, and as long as that's the case, I can't horn in on another guy's territory."

_Madly in love with Natsu…. Madly in love with Natsu…_

"I don't love Natsu," she said, sounding like a petulant child in denial.

"Heh," Loke said, and reached up to tweak her nose again. "Keep telling yourself that, princess."

With that, Loke waved to her and closed his gate, the grin never leaving his face.

Dammit.

She plopped back on her couch, feeling quite flummoxed by that entire little scene. Well, Loke had given her a possible explanation for her inability to fantasize about any of the other guys, even if she didn't really believe it.

_Did_ she love Natsu?

Of course not. He was a pig headed, fire brained, childish brat. He had no respect for privacy or personal property. He didn't care for strategy or planning, just fighting and winning.

He took care of her like no other. He protected her with all his strength. He was always there to hold her when she needed it, and sometimes he even left her alone when she asked for it… like today.

"Oh Mavis," she moaned, and fell back onto the couch, all the desire she'd been holding at bay coming flooding back to her at once. "I'm thinking of Natsu like this _because I'm in love with Natsu."_

This sucked.

Suddenly feeling exhausted, she dragged herself to her bed. It was almost dark outside.

Maybe, if she was lucky, she'd wake up tomorrow and this day would all be a bad dream.

* * *

She woke up when Natsu opened her window in the middle of the night.

Mentally, she cursed at him, although she didn't dare move or otherwise indicated that she was awake. Her uninvited visitor crept in quietly.

She almost lost it when he sat down on the bed, and began _sniffing_ her.

Oh Mavis, she though, suddenly incredibly turned on all over again.

"Levy said you were sick," he whispered to her, probably trying to see if she was still awake. "But you don't _smell_ sick. In fact, you smell," he inhaled deeply, "really good."

_Go away go away go away_

"I remember something that Igneel told me when I was a little kid," he said, sounding apologetic. "He told me that I should never kiss a girl unless she wanted to be kissed. I'm sorry I wasn't able to stop the bad guy before he… made us do that."

I'm not, Lucy answered silently. Desperate to touch him but also terrified of the depth of her feelings and just how incredibly horny she still was, she made a show of yawning and tucking herself deeper into the bed covers.

"Ah, you really are not feeling well," he said, and reached up to stroke her bangs away from her face. The gesture was meant in all innocence, but where his fingers touched her skin felt like fire.

She needed to send him away _now._

She made a great show of pretending to wake up from the contact, and yawning and stretching.

"Natsu?" she said, blinking at him sleepily.

"How are you feeling?" he asked her, and placed his hand on her forehead. "Oh no, you're burning up. Is it a cold?"

"No," she answered, her voice low and earthy. It was taking every ounce of her self-restraint not to grab him and kiss him senseless. She closed her eyes as another wave of desire rushed over her. "I'm not sure what it is," she lied, "but I don't want you to catch it so you'd probably better go."

"I think I'll be fine, I never get sick," he said, and gave her that grin of his. _That_ grin. It caused her already pounding heart to beat even harder.

"Your heart is racing," he said, probably hearing the thudding from inside her chest. Damn his super senses. At least he couldn't hear her very thoughts, as some dragon slayers could. Or so she hoped.

She looked at him, looked into those dark olive eyes that sometimes flashed the fiercest yellow. Right now they were onyx, darkened with only the light of the moon spilling in from her window.

Lucy sighed and struggled to sit up. Every iota of her being was screaming at her to grab him by the shoulders, shove him onto the bed and… well, she had a pretty good idea of what happened next from all of Levy's naughtier books, but she was a bit fuzzy on the exact details. All she know is that it would involve a lot of devouring of various bits of Natsu.

"Lucy, do you think you should go see Porlyusca? You really don't look well. And why are you wearing a bathing suit?"

She was practically panting with want and need. Why on Earthland wasn't Natsu picking up on it?

_Dragon magic is built for fighting dragons, not mating with them,_ Levy had told her. And yet, things seemed to be working out quite well between her and Gajeel, even if the script mage had had to take that first tentative step.

Maybe Natsu would only respond if Lucy took a first step, too.

Slowly, she leaned toward him, her eyes flicking down to his mouth to make sure she was lining things up properly. Natsu's own eyes widened as she brushed his lips carefully, briefly, with her own. As he did not recoil in horror, she closed her eyes completely and sank into the kiss, trying to convey to him just how much she loved him and wanted him in that moment.

He went as stiff as if he had been taken over by the puppet magic again, but did not refuse her as she really did grip his shoulders and pulled him closer to her. He ended up seated on the edge of her bed, beside her legs.

As he neither reacted nor resisted, she paused, uncertain. The ravenous beast inside her raged as she broke the kiss, leaning away from him a bit so she could study his expression.

Finally, he spoke.

"It's different when you're not being forced to do it," he said, his voice cracking a bit, betraying his emotions. Huh. Maybe the dumb fighting machine had some hormones in him after all.

"Yeah," she agreed, looking away, trying to keep her breathing under control. "I'd like to do it more often."

"Really, Lucy?" Natsu sounded surprised. "I thought you weren't into that girly stuff."

"Kissing is _girly stuff_?" She raised an eyebrow incredulously. "You really are nineteen going on nine. Come here."

This time she pulled him into a kiss that was so heated and so searing she would not have been surprised to see steam radiating off him. She grabbed his hands and placed them at her bare waist, and ran one hand through his hair while the other gripped the front of his shirt for dear life. She used the leverage of her hand on his head to push his mouth into hers, probing with her tongue until she'd coaxed him into opening his lips for her.

Funny how well instinct served sometimes, she though, as he gradually learned the rhythm of the kiss. He tasted sweet and faintly smoky, like a camp fire.

Feeling much calmer once he had started participating directly, she finally broke the kiss and trailed little kisses along his jaw line.

"Uh," Natsu said uncomfortably, his voice pitched a bit higher than normal, "are you sure this thing of yours isn't contagious?"

Her answer was to hum against his neck. "Still think kissing is just for girls, then? There's a reason your Igneel told you never to kiss a girl who didn't want to be kissed. He expected that someday you'd _want_ to be the one doing the kissing."

"I guess," Natsu said, sounding painfully confused.

Lucy sighed. She'd made progress, but it seemed as though getting Natsu any farther tonight was going to be impossible.

"You'd probably better go," she said, and gently pushed him away. Her libido protested strongly, but fortunately her executive mind was still in charge of her actions. "I never even asked how Happy is."

"He's fine," Natsu said, and then stood up hurriedly. Lucy had to smile a bit to herself as she saw a telltale bulge in Natsu's pants. "Will you be at the guild tomorrow?"

It would be a bad idea for Lucy to go to the guild with Natsu.

But now that she managed to make him flustered, even if just a little, she didn't want to stop.

"Yes," she said. "Let's go on a quick mission, if we haven't heard where our robber mage has moved to yet."

"Okay." He scratched his head nervously, and then jumped out the window quickly before she could say another word. She stared after him, thoughtfully.

Natsu had left the window open, and the cool night air was a welcome relief to her overheated skin.

Sadly, she touched her lips, and wondered if she should cave in to the humiliating act of self-pleasure just so she could get some _sleep._

She only thought about it for a few moments before she closed her eyes and just gave into the fantasies of Natsu. His erection had not been her imagination. He was beginning to pick up on the passion she'd harbored for him that night.

_At least our friendship hasn't exploded into flames,_ she thought, as she hugged her pillow and pretended that it was him.

_Well, not yet, anyway._

* * *

**Thanks for all the reviews and favorites! Please look forward to the next section, Grapefruit!**


	3. Grapefruits

**A grapefruit is a hybrid of an orange and a pomelo. It is a uniquely bitter fruit. The chemical which gives it its signature taste interacts poorly with cholesterol lowering statins…. so anyone on cholesterol medication is allergic to grapefruits.**

* * *

Lucy woke up feeling much better. The fever seemed to have gone down, and she almost felt normal as she dressed in one of her favorite outfits.

Maybe Levy was wrong, she thought, breathing a sigh of relief. Maybe that stupid stuff wore off in a day.

To test it, she intentionally thought of Natsu. She summoned him in her mind – that firm chest, those washboard abs, that wonderful spiky pink hair…

She felt butterflies in her stomach, but the intense waves of lust from yesterday seemed to be gone.

"All right! I'm feeling lucky today!" Feeling alive and full of energy, she summoned Plue to have him accompany her to the guild. The little celestial spirit landed joyfully in her arms, and she cuddled him for a few moments before she strapped on her sandals and headed out to the guild.

She was ready for a new mission, assuming there was no news about their robber mage yet.

Lucy arrived at the guild to find out, much to her dismay, that there weren't any available missions on the board. It had been picked clean, probably because Fairy Hills rent was going to be due in a few days. With a sigh, Lucy dropped onto one of the benches in the cavernous guild hall, wondering when Natsu would arrive. She scanned around, looking for familiar faces. Cana was on top of the table next to her, sitting cross legged. The older girl had never mastered the art of normal seating.

"Hi Cana," she said, waving to the resident lush of the guild. Cana lifted her enormous beer mug by way of greeting, before lifting it high and chugging down a third of it in one go.

"Heya Lucy," Cana said after she had wiped her mouth and breathed deeply. "How did your mission go yesterday?"

"Terrible," Lucy said, trying not to think about her reaction to Natsu. "Our nose plugs blocked the sleeping magic, but he also had one that entered through our lungs as we breathed." She pursed her lips, pouting. "He got away."

"Awww," Cana said, and took another swig of beer. "Get drunk before you go out next time. Mild poisons prevent sleep potions from working."

"Huh, I didn't know that," Lucy said, filing away that bit of information for the future.

She finally heard Natsu before she saw him. Everyone in the guild turned toward the door as Natsu and Gray made their normal noisy morning entrance.

"Eat a dick, ice pick."

"You shut up, you fire-breathing moron!"

Lucy sighed, but had to smile a bit to herself. Those two would be like that for the rest of their lives, in all likelihood.

She watched Natsu as he approached her table, and all of a sudden the feelings from yesterday came back to her in a rush. The faint tickling in her stomach pooled lower in her belly, and she felt certain girly bits twitch in anticipation. Her heart began thudding in her chest as Natsu plunked down next to her, just a foot away from her, on the bench. Moments later, Happy landed on the table.

Lucy managed to hold in her terrified squeak. It seems Levy was right, and her ordeal would not be over for some time yet.

"Yo, Lucy!" he said, his grin infectious. He gave no indication that he remembered – or was concerned about – what had occurred between them the night before.

"Hi, Natsu," she managed to croak out. He smelled like sunshine and summer campfires, as always. "Hi Happy."

"Poo, poo!" Plue said by way of greeting to their companions.

"Got a mission for us yet?" Natsu asked, looking pointedly at her empty hands.

"There's nothing there to get," she said with a sigh. "Erza probably took half the ones that were available."

"Erza's mean~" Happy said, sounding disappointed. Then he brightened up. "I wonder if she'll buy me a fish."

Lucy couldn't help but smile at the crestfallen Exceed. Natsu and Happy really only needed to do missions for food money, and the occasional new outfit for the dragon slayer. He had a bad tendency to destroy clothes during especially grueling fights, which is why his default wardrobe abruptly changed when he'd torn something beyond repair.

She glanced over at his bared arm, noting the chiseled muscles, and swallowed hard. Without the distraction of a mission, this was going to be tougher than she'd expected.

"Everyone, can I have your attention please?" They all looked toward the bar when they heard the Master's voice calling to them. Makarov was dressed in a nice outfit, and a blushing Bisca sat next to him, Alzac standing beside her with a proud grin holding their precious daughter.

"What is it?" someone called from the back. "Bisca's not expecting again, is she?"

Alzac's eyebrows lifted and he looked down at his wife. Bisca laughed, waving it off in denial.

"Ahem," Makarov said, ignoring the comment. "Bisca has been named the winner of Magnolia's Citizen of the Year, for her work with the local humane society."

Everyone gasped in appreciation, while Bisca blushed prettily.

"This is a very high honor, and it is the first time they have given the award to a member of a mage guild since it was instituted almost thirty years ago."

The entire guild broke into whoops and cheers. Makarov held up his hand to silence them.

"As a result, Fairy Tail is having a holiday today. All missions are suspended, which is why the board is empty. They'll be back tomorrow, don't worry." The hold man lifted one finger toward the sky. "For now, let's party!"

Fairy Tail didn't need much prodding to toss caution to the wind and throw a wild, raucous bash that would soon have the Magnolia police and firefighters on the lookout. The city didn't mind it when they trashed their own guild, but especially crazy parties could spill outdoors, and drunken mages almost always resulted in extra property damage.

Several drinks later, Lucy found herself in a circle with about half the guild, playing some bizarre combination of spin the bottle and truth or dare.

"Ah, it's you, Levy!" Macao said, lifting his sake cup up in joy. "Truth or dare?"

Levy blushed prettily. "Truth," she said, twiddling her thumbs.

Macao's grin turned feral and his eyes narrowed. "Is it true that you and Gajeel were at the beach together last week?"

"Hey!"

"Levy-chan!" Jet and Droy cried together in dismay at the thought.

Levy's blush turned five shades deeper. "Yes," she said in a really small voice, and then hurried to reach over to spin the bottle in order to get the attention away from herself.

The bottle spun only a few times before it wobbled to a stop, pointing directly at Natsu.

"Natsu," Levy said cheerfully, pretending as if the last question had not existed. "Truth or dare?"

The fire dragon slayer was already two drinks deep himself, his face flushed from the alcohol.

"Dare, of course!" he said, as if it was obvious.

Levy's expression morphed into one not unlike the one Macao had worn moments earlier.

"I dare you to spend seven minutes of heaven in the closet with Lucy."

Lucy heard her name and nearly choked on the beer she had been sipping. "Levy!" she cried, horrified at the betrayal.

Levy just winked at her.

Oh Mavis, her best friend thought she was doing her a _favor._

She looked at Natsu, who had a sort of blank expression of confusion on his face. He turned to her, and she felt her body absolutely _pulse_ when he did.

Getting into a closet with the dragon slayer was a very bad idea right now.

"Go on, you cindery shithead," Gray said, goading him. Behind him, Juvia was holding her teru-teru bozu doll and praying to whatever rain gods may be that the bottle spun upon her and Gray and she would get a similar turn.

"I'm _going_, iceberg head."

Might as well get this over with.

She stood up and brushed her skirt off, and then set her drink on the nearest table. She was grateful she hadn't gotten very far – alcohol lowered inhabitations, and that was the last thing she needed in her… condition.

They were gleefully shoved into the closet by their own guild mates.

Natsu sat awkwardly on one of Cana's empty barrels, leaving Lucy a spare bar stool. She perched uneasily, clutching the hem of her skirt.

Her mouth seemed to be alternately between drool and dry as she looked at him.

"So…" she began, really unsure. She pressed her arms together, both painfully shy and painfully aroused. "I've never done seven minutes in heaven before."

"Eh, it just means they shove people in the closet for seven minutes and then tease them for days afterward." He stared at her, his grin gone as his delicate nose quivered. He was _smelling _her. "You've been acting weird lately, Lucy" he said finally. "And you smell weird. "

"Sorry," she said, trying not to cry. Natsu didn't like her that way after all, her mind wailed in dismay.

"It's like that time when you got into the sake at the inn," he said, referring to the incident where she'd been crazy and downed and entire bottle of sake by herself. It had been Erza's idea, to drink all the booze and leave none for the guys, but it had backfired. She didn't remember much of that night, although vague flashes of trying to feed Natsu eggs still came to mind.

"I've only had two normal sized drinks today," she said, holding up her empty hands.

"I'm just worried about ya, Lucy," her best friend said, and stood up from his barrel to approach her. She almost flinched as his hand touched her forehead. "You haven't been yourself ever since yesterday. Did… our kiss really bother you that much?"

Oh, please, let Earthland just open up beneath her feed and swallow her whole now.

"It didn't bother me," she said, then quickly backtracked. "Well, it didn't bother me as much as it could have."

He tensed. "What could have made it worse?"

She gulped. She had to believe in Natsu. She'd told him so many times that she believed in him, maybe it was time to trust him with her most precious thing of all… her heart.

"If it had been with anyone but you."

She stood up beside him, slid her around his neck, and before he could protest, she kissed him softly.

"Lucy…?"

"I… I like you, Natsu," she said, trying to keep her raging hormones in check. Every cell in her body was on fire, probably because of her contact with him. She felt her body _pulse_ again. "I've been acting weird because the bandit splashed me with a potion that makes me- that is, I'm all turned…"

She just couldn't say it. Natsu was so frigging dense. Even if she spelled it out that she was so damn turned on she couldn't even think, he wouldn't understand. Dragon slayers were stupid machines built for fighting with no understanding of romance, or sex, or-

"Oh, like an aphrodisiac?"

_What?!_

"How did you-"

"Ah, so that's what I've been smelling! Why didn't you tell me that's what he splashed you with?"

Lucy realized she was still embracing him, and she quickly stepped back, as if she'd been hit with the stuff all over again. Her face felt like it was glowing magenta, she was so embarrassed.

"You don't… that is…"

"Yeah, Erza warned me about that kind of thing, especially when Juvia started messing around with potions. But you're not doing anything of the things she said could happen." He grinned and rubbed the back of his neck nervously, not quite meeting her in the eye.

What the hell had Erza filled his innocent mind with?

"Like, I mean, you're not stripping like Gray, and you're not tackling me to the ground and pinning me down and having your way with me, or anything like that."

"Maybe I want to," she whispered, staring at her feet, but he didn't seem to hear her.

"It'll wear off in a few days, right?" He finally looked at her again, his cheerful face suddenly scowling a little. But the faintest blush betrayed his real emotions.

She loved this man, she really did. He was pretending not to be affected, because he thought she was not herself. But now that he knew the cause, he was trying to put on a brave front for her.

"So if I threw you to the ground so I could have my way with you, would you let me?" she said, only half joking. She touched his coat and traced her fingers along his abdomen, watching the muscles quiver beneath her hand underneath the cloth.

Natsu's faint blushed expanded rapidly. "Now you're saying weird things again."

A loud knocking interrupted them. "Time's up!" the group outside roared together, and the door opened to Natsu and Lucy, inches from each other, her hand on her chest.

"Awww, they're not even kissing, how lame," Cana muttered, and went back to the game. A few embarrassed coughs, and the two escaped the confines of the closet coolly, as if nothing had happened.

As if _nothing_ had happened.

"Plue!" Lucy said, grateful to escape the stifling room. Her little pet leapt into her arms – it was a testament to the control she had over summoning magic that she hadn't accidentally closed the gate during that awkward conversation.

"Lucy and Natsu ~ sitting in a … um… closet," Happy teased in his faint lisp, flying around their heads. Lucy gave him a halfhearted swat, and Natsu just grinned at the little blue Exceed, taking his friend's taunting in stride as always.

"That's not how the rhyme goes, you dumb cat."

"Pue pue!"

"K~I~S~S~I—"

"We didn't kiss in there, cat!"

Happy just giggled and flew off to enjoy the rest of the party.

* * *

Hours later, the celebration wound down, and people who had not yet passed out began to leave the guild lest they be roped into helping clean up.

Lucy stifled a yawn and headed toward the door. She'd eventually run out of magic and had to let Plue go. It would be mighty convenient if Happy was a celestial spirit and she could force _his _gate closed, but the little Exceed was unstoppable. He had giggled and mocked her and Natsu mercilessly for the rest of the party, even though everyone else was of the general opinion that nothing had occurred in the close. (Which it _hadn't_, Lucy reminded herself. She still wasn't sure if she was pleased or upset about that.)

"Heading out, Lucy?" she heard Natsu say, and her heart began thudding in her chest just from the sound of his voice. Man, she had it bad.

"Yes," she said, feeling the heat rise to her cheeks again. She would like to stop blushing around him constantly already. It was getting old.

"I'll walk you home," he said simply, and smiled at her.

In her lust-addled mind, she could have sworn she saw sparkles erupt from around his head.

"Okay," she choked out, turning away.

"I'm going to stay here for a bit, there's still food left," Happy said, and waved to them. "I'll catch up later."

_No!_

Happy was her last defense against Natsu. Without the Exceed around to gently rib them, she would begin to feel the lust inside. Happy was annoying, but he was also just distracting enough that she could function.

"See ya!" Natsu said, waving to the flying cat as they left the guild

They walked along the streets of Magnolia, as they had so many times before. Lucy loved the way the city had channeled the river, taming it and turning it into a square of canals. She had learned that it was originally done for flood control, but the lovely river also provided easy transportation of goods to the heart of the city, and had helped Magnolia become one of the stronger commercial hubs of Fiore outside of the capital city of Crocus.

"Hey Natsu," she said, stopping suddenly. "I've never gone on the gondola ride on the river."

"What, do you want to go now?" He also stopped, but he looked confused.

She shook her head. "No, silly. It just occurred to me that I've apparently missed out on one of Magnolia's biggest tourist attractions all this time, and I've lived here for almost a year."

"Oh." He turned to her, blushing again. "It's supposed to be a thing that lovey-dovey couples do. I never really saw the point, myself."

Lucy sighed. "Sometimes I think you don't have a romantic bone in your body." She remembered the time he had brought her a cherry tree in a boat down the river, because she was too sick to go with the guild for the cherry blossom party. Oh, Natsu could be a romantic, all right.

Dammit, she _needed_ to make him reconcile their deep friendship with the long suffering sexual tension they'd been sharing.

She deliberately stepped closer to him. With the river behind him, he was unable to retreat too far.

"Natsu," she breathed, tipping her face up to look at him. His expression quickly turned panicky.

"What?"

She placed her hand on his chest, where she had last left it in the closet. "Maybe we should go down the river together," she purred, inching her face closer.

She could see the faint stubble he diligently shaved off every morning – he didn't have a lot of facial hair (a side effect in men from being so athletic, she had learned from Erza); just enough to prove he was a man, and not a young boy. She wondered if that faint would itch against her cheek the next time they kissed.

"Lucy, you're acting weird again," he warned, gripping her shoulders to hold her away.

They stayed like that for some time, unable to move. Lucy's heart was thudding in her chest. She watched as Natsu's nostrils flared as he breathed.

"Lucy-"

"Oh just kiss her already!"

Lucy saw drunk, raucous pedestrians that looked suspiciously like members of the guild from the corner of her eye before she was shoved unceremoniously into Natsu, and the two of them landed in the canal with a splash.

She bobbed to the surface quickly, sputtering in shock.

Natsu was beside her in an instant, hollering threats and profanity in the general direction of the giggling pedestrians, who had wisely started running away.

He helped push her up the edge of the canal before climbing out himself. She watched, quite jealous, as he set himself on fire to burn away the moisture. A great cloud of steam erupted from him, and then suddenly stopped. He was completely dry.

"Handy trick," she muttered, wringing out her hair. Ugh, her clothes were plastered onto her like a second skin. The cool evening air was making her nipples pebble up worse than they had been before.

"Let's get you home," Natsu said, and to her great surprised, plucked her bodily off the street, bridal style.

"Natsu!" she exclaimed, squirming as the bodily contact exacerbated her little problem.

Once again, Natsu had managed to completely ignore all that sexual tension they'd just been feeling. It's like he was able to pretend it never happened.

Lucy frowned. Maybe she needed to do something to him that he'd never forget.

* * *

He set her down just outside her apartment door, rubbing his head shyly in that way she found so endearing.

"Can I come in?" he asked, a hesitating slightly.

"Of course," she said, mildly annoyed. When she didn't want him to come in, he'd climb in her window on his own. When she _did_ want him to come in, he asked politely first.

She fumbled with the key to her apartment for a moment, before she unceremoniously shoved the door in, then reached back outside and grabbed Natsu by his scarf. He yelped in surprise.

She didn't even give him a chance to fight before she shoved him on the couch, pinning him down with her legs.

He stared at her blankly, stunned by her sudden actions. "Is this the part where you try to have your way with me?" he said, his voice cracking in confusion.

"Maybe," she murmured, and reached up to strip off her damp shirt. All she cared about was the fact that she had him right where she wanted him.

The fever had returned, and oh, she was _burning_ for him. For once, she was the one who was all fired up. She reached down, clad only in her bra, to give him a searing kiss. At first he didn't react, much like last night, but as she coaxed him into kissing her back, he became more involved with the action. This was nothing like the forced kiss the robber mage had made them do. He squirmed under her, and they shifted to be more comfortable as they lay together on her couch, separated only by their clothing.

She was, upon reflection, _making out_ with Natsu.

"I… could get used to someone having their way with me," Natsu admitted when they broke for air.

"Only me," Lucy warned in between kisses. "Only I get to have my way with you."

"Can I have my way with you too?"

In answer, she reached behind her back and started to twist off her bra. Natsu watched her, bug eyed, as the stiff fabric loosened and gave way, revealing one of the more stunning pairs of breasts in the guild.

Before he could utter another word, she had pushed her breasts around his neck, so that her cleavage was pressed into his mouth.

"What do I do?" he asked, his voice muffled by the billowy organs.

"Blow into it. Like it was… a horn." She had been about to suggest the sound of a motorboat, to match the phrase she'd read about in one of Levy's romance novels, but Natsu would probably associated motors with _vehicles_, such as cars and trains, and that was the last thing she needed.

Unsure, he pressed his lips between her breasts, and blew tentatively. After a few seconds, he must have realized he found the sensation enjoyable, and his blowing attempts grew bolder. Before long, he was laughing joyful and rubbing his face back and forth into her boobs, holding the heavy weights in each of his hands.

"Hey, this is kind of fun," he said, and blew again, cackling like a child who had discovered a new toy.

"I can show you much more fun, Natsu," she said breathlessly, and started to creep her hand under his shirt. He was hot to the touch, as always, and she scraped her fingernails into his flesh as Natsu started licking her left breast, apparently exploring the taste of her skin. She didn't stop him even as he suckled hard, biting her lightly with his fanged teeth. Not enough to draw blood, but enough to let her know he was doing it. Her hand crept lower down his stomach, into the waistband of his boxers, seeking a prize of her own. Almost… _almost…._

It was to this scene that an Exceed flew in the room from the opened window.

"Natsu~ you should have seen what Cana did when Erza sent her into the room with Jet – EEEEK! "

"Happy!?" Lucy and Natsu tried to sit upright at the same time, and ended up knocking their heads together.

"My eyes! My innocent eyes!" the little Exceed cried, covering his eyes with his paws and then not so subtly peeking through his fingers.

Mood killed. Lucy shrieked and grabbed her bra and damp shirt off the back of the couch where she had tossed them, covering up her chest in embarrassment. She fled to her bathroom and slammed the door.

"Both of you go home!" she called out to the main room, mortified.

"Natsu, why were you sucking on Lucy's boobies like a baby?" she heard Happy asked. He seemed genuinely curious.

"I don't know," Natsu answered. "I honestly don't know. It was fun, I guess? It seemed like the right thing to do."

Dumb machine built for fighting, indeed.

"That's gross," Happy complained, likely not understanding the nuances of human anatomy completely.

She couldn't stop shaking. She waited until they left her apartment, and then filled the bathtub with hot water. She needed a cold shower, but the dampness from her dunk in the river had chilled her to the bone. She scrubbed off the remaining gunk and then sank gratefully into the hot water.

She seemed to be slowly awakening the beast within the dragon slayer, but turning on Natsu's dormant sexuality was turning out to be more of a challenge than she'd ever expected.

She glanced down at her left breast, where Natsu had suckled a bit too hard and left a mark.

Well, it was a start.

* * *

**Not gonna even lie, it is crunch time in graduate school. I'm done in exactly one month! So yeah, I've been writing a user's manual instead of this. (I also have a nasty sinus infection. I love spring, but pollen sucks.)**

**Two more parts to go. Let's take this NaLu slow… but not too slow.**


	4. Limes

**A lime is the name given to a very large number of different species and sub species within the Citrus genus. They are grown all over the world and they are beloved for their unique flavor and scent. Like all plants in the citrus genus, they are readily cross bred with other citrus trees. Yum.**

* * *

Lucy left for the guild early the next day, terrified that Happy and Natsu would arrive before her and tell the entire gang just what she and Natsu had been doing the day before.

She just didn't know what had gotten into her. Whenever she saw Natsu, all rational thought and logic fled her mind and all she could think about was stripping off his clothes and kissing him senseless.

Well, _kissing_ was probably the PG rated term for what she wanted to do with him.

It was early enough that the guild was fairly empty, with only Kinana at the bar, making coffee in preparation for the addicts who would surely come in soon. Lucy waved, and went straight to the mission bard.

"Any news about the bandit that Natsu and I were trying to take down?"

"No," Kinana said, and then looked thoughtfully in the distance. "Although the city of Hargean did send you a thank you gift of a thousand jewels for chasing the bandit out of their city." She reached under the counter to pull out a slender envelope, which she handed to Lucy.

"A thousand…? Ugh." Hargean's city council had been under no obligation to send them anything, since she and Natsu had completely flubbed up the mission, but apparently their target had fled the city for good, now that he knew there were legal guilds on his tail.

"Well, it's lunch money at least," Kinana said, and Lucy sighed. She was right, of course. Always look on the bright side of things.

"I'm going to grab a mission that we can do in a day, then," Lucy said, and stepped over to the mission board. "Hopefully we'll hear some news by tomorrow."

She grabbed the first mission that looked easy and paid more than a few thousand jewels. The University of Bristlecone wanted a couple of mages that could do a Unison Raid. Perfect, Lucy said to herself, stuffing the paper into her purse.

She fled the guild, determined to head off Natsu and Happy before they hit the guild and started telling everyone about the heavy make out session from last night.

Luckily, she found them about where she'd expected they'd be, walking in from their home just outside the city proper. At least, she found Natsu. Happy wasn't with him. Uh oh…

"Good morning!" she said cheerfully, determined not to talk about last night's heavy petting.

"Morning Lucy!" Natsu said with his own giant grin, happy to play along – or not, considering this was his natural state.

"Where's Happy?"

"He said he's not feeling too well," Natsu said, looking slightly puzzled. "That his eyes were still burning and his tummy hurt from laughing so hard. That, and he thought we needed some 'alone time' whatever that means."

_Traitorous cat, _Lucy thought unkindly.

"Fine. I found a mission that's really just for us two anyway. Still no word on pervy bandit, but this is a day job." She handed him the mission flyer.

"The university? Isn't that up in Bristlecone?" Natsu suddenly greened. "I don't want to take a train ride," he whined.

Lucy snatched the paper back. "It's a short ride. And the pay is definitely worth the train ticket."

"But Lucy~" he pleaded.

"Hush," she said, and grabbed his hand. The contact sent a fierce jolt up electricity straight up her arm and into her lower bits, but she ignored that as determinately as she did his complaints about the required transportation.

* * *

The train ride ended up as usual for them. By now, the train station had learned to give the Fairy Tail dragon slayers a car to themselves, lest other passengers be accidentally puked upon. So Natsu sprawled across a whole seat row, moaning in agony, while he lay his head on Lucy's lap and she stroked his hair, trying to calm him.

His face being on her lap, inches from her pelvis, had never bothered her this much before. Even though Natsu was ill, she couldn't help but be massively turned on by their position. Stupid aphrodisiac.

She found her hands that had been stroking his hair wandering down his neck, along his shirt. She felt the muscles, firm and hard, underneath it. Slowly, her hand crept down his chest, exploring the contours of his amazing torso.

Sometime during her petting, Natsu dozed off fitfully and began to half snore, half snort in that adorable way of his.

Emboldened, she slipped her hand lower, lightly grazing his belly button. She traced her fingers along the seam of his pants, then dared to dip just a _little_ lower…. Just a little more…

_Natsu was hard._

She was so startled by this discovery that her first instinct was to shove him off her lap and dump him onto the floor. As it was, she lifted her hand up immediately. Natsu remained dozing and oblivious.

Well, well, well. The flame-brained dragon slayer was totally capable of an erection. Lucy would be impressed if she wasn't so horribly embarrassed by her own actions.

She studied his face. The blue streaks of his nausea were gone in his sleep; the motion sickness that dragon slayers experienced was more psychological than it was physical. Being moved by living beings didn't bother them, only inanimate objects. Like trains… or moving cities.

Swallowing back her embarrassment, she let curiosity take over. She gave a quick glance around the train car to verify that they were truly, really alone, and gently slipped her wandering hand down the waistband of his boxers.

He was blazing hot underneath his clothing, and large enough apparently that her fingers immediately encountered the object of their quest. She bit back a gasp at the unexpected softness of him. Smooth and fleshy and yet so firm as well.

Natsu snorted in his sleep and she froze, but he turned his head to the side and mumbled something about miniskirts. Lucy made a mental note to toss out all the pairs of pants she owned.

She lifted the waistband of his boxers to grant her hand more access, but she was still constrained by his actual pants. She dared not risk unbuttoning him or taking off his belt, so she had to squeeze her hand down what little room his erection left her, until she cupped his entire penis in her hand.

He seemed to twitch and pulse beneath her. His face jaw was slack as he slept, although he seemed to wince when she gave an experimental squeeze.

She ought to stop this _right now_, she told herself. She had no right to be touching him intimately on a freakin' _train._ But the aphrodisiac potion was firmly in control, and Lucy could not stop herself from rubbing the palm of her hand up and down the length of him just once.

The look on his face was priceless. He looked almost… like he was in pain, but it was something quite different. She rubbed again.

All of a sudden his expression scrunched up, and to Lucy's horror she felt a spurt of hot liquid on her wrist. She clapped her free left hand over her mouth, trying desperately not to scream. Natsu, completely oblivious to his unintentional emission (it wasn't quite nocturnal since it was broad daylight outside), now had a grin on his face.

_Yuck yuck yuck!_

Carefully, Lucy scooped up as much of the mess as she could in her one hand, and then slipped out from under Natsu's head, leaving him snoring blissfully on the train seat. She fled to the bathroom and washed her hands of the sticky semen.

She washed them five times all together, not quite able to scrub away the guilt from molesting Natsu when he was at his most vulnerable.

* * *

"Wow, I feel really refreshed today!" Natsu said cheerfully, stepping gratefully onto solid land again.

Lucy said nothing. There was no way on Earthland she was going to tell him that his "refreshment" was probably a side effect of accidental sexual release.

"So where are we going?" They had left the train station and they were walking along one of the town's sidewalks. Lucy seemed to know where they were headed.

"The university's main campus," Lucy said, and pulled out the mission brochure. "High Energy Magic building. They do a lot of magical research and they need mages capable of doing a Unison Raid for a particular experiment."

"We've done a Unison Raid together?" Natsu's brows furrowed in concentration, clearly trying to remember such a momentous occasion.

"Well, _I've_ done it with quite a few different people," Lucy said, "and you're certainly strong enough to do it if you really tried." She put her hands on her hips. "I'm sure you could combine attacks with Aries or Leo, for example, since their zodiac element is fire."

"Aries is fire? But her attacks are wool!"

Lucy shrugged. She didn't completely understand it either, but she always liked her zodiac's elements to their underlying personalities more than their actual spells and abilities. "Aquarius is technically an air sign, even though she's the Water Bearer. So her elements are both water and air. I guess Aries is both fire and wool."

"Steel wool can cause sparks," Natsu mused, thinking. "I'll have to remember that."

"Let's go to the High Energy Magic building and get some cash."

The university occupied much of the town of Bristlecone, and was a lot larger than Lucy had anticipated. They'd had to walk nearly a mile down a shady, park-like quadrangle that was lined with ancient buildings before they found the street where the High Energy Magic building was located. The building itself was tall but not thin – about ten stories high, she decided, but its width gave it a feeling of squatness. There was also something disorienting about the windows, which didn't seem to follow any kind of pattern. It was completely and utterly random.

Lucy wasn't quite nervous as they walked in the giant double doors, but she was feeling a mix of dread and curiosity, the same mix she got any time she walked into someplace completely unknown. The inside of the building was cool and cavernous.

"Mages: Please sign in here," said a faded yellow sign with a large arrow, pointing toward an office with a front facing window that could slide open. The window was patterned to prevent them from seeing in, but there appeared to be a human shaped blob behind it.

Lucy and Natsu stepped up to it nervously and signed their names. The window opened and the human shaped blob resolved into a pretty young lady with rainbow colored hair and glittery earrings.

"Hello! Are you here for an experiment?"

"Yes," Lucy and Natsu said together. She handed the girl the mission brochure.

"Oh excellent, we haven't had anyone take us up on this one yet." The girl nodded. "Let me page Dr. Allstone and see if he's available."

She touched a button on a lacrima device, and a few moments later a tinny voice answered with, "Lacrima Magic, Dr. Allstone's Office."

"Is there an experiment slot open today? We have a couple of mages here for the Unison Raid experiment."

"Oh that's great!" the disembodied voice on the other end of the lacrima communicator said. "And yes, we're clear until late this afternoon when we're having a staff meeting. I'll tell Dr. Allstone. Send them on up."

The rainbow haired girl was scribbling on a post it note before the conversation was even over.

"He's on the 7th floor," she said, and handed them the post it note. "Room 118. Jennie will get you all signed in."

They headed to the elevator, looking around the relatively sterile and boring looking academic building.

"They don't have the same style as the magic council," Lucy commented.

The university had been devoted strictly to academic subjects until the whole incident with Jellal and the Tower of Paradise, when the magic council had finally dissolved its research division. The university had offered to open up a magic school, and the High Energy Magic building had been born. They had made great strides in lacrima based technology, but in many ways they were still in the pocket of the Council's magical army.

The duo reached the office. Lucy felt that the palpable, totally one-sided sexual tension from before had faded somewhat. This building was the un-sexiest place she'd ever been in, aside from perhaps her father's mansion.

Lucy knocked politely. The door opened almost immediately, and she saw the source of the voice on the other end of the lacrima communicator, another young lady, this one also pretty but fairly plump and with normal red-brown hair.

"Hi, I'm Susan," she said, and extended her hand politely to shake with both Lucy and Natsu in turn. "Thank you for coming out today." She nodded at them. "I've actually heard of both of you. We tend to keep our eyes on very powerful mages, and I'm glad to see you are willing to participate in our study."

"Do you want to see us do a Unison Raid together?" Natsu asked, his face carefully blank.

Susan waved her hand dismissively. "No, that was really just an indication of the power level and control we were looking for. So the mission sheet is a tad misleading. We tend to do that a lot around here. Just asking for 'strong' mages gets us rookies."

Lucy watched as Natsu let out an unconscious sigh of relief. Silly boy. _She_ knew that, should the occasion arise, his magic would be completely compatible with hers. And because she had done the Unison Raid so many times, she knew exactly how to time it and to initiate it. It really wasn't so hard. If you thought of your magic as an extra arm, it was just a matter of reaching out and grabbing the other person's extra arm… and then holding hands together.

"All right, so you'll need to fill out these forms…"

Sometime later, after all the paperwork, Natsu and Lucy found themselves in what appeared to be a wrestling ring. Susan and a tall, thin middle aged man in a white research coat were standing off to the side. Wires lined the ring, closely spaced. The floor was firm but springy.

"This arena measures the magical discharge from people," the thin man said. "Your base magical aura is usually very low, because unless you are actively using magic, you tend not to emit anything. We're trying to measure how much very strong mages emit in battle."

Lucy and Natsu glanced at each other.

"You mean we have to fight?" she said, concerned. Yet another thing not mentioned on the mission sheet.

"Not seriously," he said, waving his hand dismissively. "Just play a bit."

That was not something Fairy Tail mages did. Even play fights were serious.

"All right," Natsu said, punching one fist into the other palm. "I'm all fired up!"

"In that case," Lucy said, and brandished her key ring, "let's play hard. Open the gate of the Lion! Leo!"

Within seconds her magic circle opened, and the strongest of her celestial spirits appeared.

"What is it, Lucy?" Loke asked, looking around his surroundings in interest. "I don't see any enemies."

Lucy pointed to Natsu.

"He made me cry," she said truthfully. It was out of sexual frustration and not his normal stupidity, but she most definitely did cry because of him.

That was all the motivation that Loke needed to switch to a hard battle stance.

"Natsu," Loke growled, the undertones of a lion's roar coming through his voice.

"Lucy," Natsu whined. "You didn't say I made you cry before!"

"Get him," was all she said, stepping back to the side of the ring.

Dr. Allstone was furiously scribbling notes while Susan fiddled with little dials at what must have been a control panel.

Lucy watched calmly as Loke threw a punch at Natsu, who nimbly ducked. The fight proceeded more or less like she had expected, with Leo on the warpath and Natsu trying not to get hit while also trying to do some hitting of his own. Eventually, Natsu managed to land a solid right hook on Loke, but Loke used the opportunity for a counter punch that sent Natsu flying into the air.

"Tea, mistress?"

Lucy had summoned Virgo, who had assessed the situation in her calm manner and assumed the fight between the boys to be of no consequence. She handed Lucy a hot cup of tea and a cookie.

"Thank you."

Lucy sipped her tea and munched the treat absently while she and Virgo watched the fight.

"Fire Dragon's Breath!"

"Regulus!"

The two young men approached each other, both fists blazing.

"You have no right to touch my Lucy!"

"Oh yeah? Well, I've touched _and_ kissed her breasts!"

They collided in a giant blaze, fire meeting light magic. The resulting explosion caused a shock wave of heat and magic that blew Lucy and Virgo's hair away from their faces.

At the end of the blast, both Natsu and Loke were padded out flat on the ground. Loke's avatar dissolved into a gentle flow of light motes before he disappeared, leaving Natsu alone.

"You seem to have won, princess."

Lucy hurriedly set her tea down on the tea tray and went to Natsu, who was knocked out cold. She could imagine a series of little flying Exceeds over his head.

"Splendid, splendid," Dr. Allstone said, looking at readouts from the lacrima control panel. "Natsu's maximum power output was significantly higher than yours, Miss Lucy, but your overall magic output was much higher. I'd assume you have much better control."

Lucy nodded; that was an accurate description of their respective abilities.

"It appears you're also regenerating your magic at a much higher rate." He frowned. "You're the first Celestial Mage and he's the first Dragon Slayer we've had in any of our experiments, so this is quite fascinating." He pulled on his chin, studying the numbers. "Well, we'll need some time to analyze the results fully. Your part is done, and we thank you for your contribution to lacrima science."

* * *

Lucy ended up having to ask Virgo to help haul Natsu away from the field. Susan had given her their rather generous pay, and confirmed that there was reservations at a nearby hotel for them to spend the night.

She and Virgo left the university campus, the latter with an unconscious Natsu slung unceremoniously over her shoulder. Lucy would have felt bad about it, except that Virgo was one of her strongest avatars and certainly had some of the highest stamina.

"Why is it that you're almost as strong as Leo?" Lucy mused aloud, not really directing the question at Virgo, but perhaps hoping for an answer nonetheless.

"Because you believe I am," Virgo said. Lucy stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and stared at her. She was met with Virgo's fathomless eyes.

"Is it really so simple?"

Virgo nodded, and subtly adjusted Natsu's form in her grip. "All Celestial Spirits reflect the will of the person with whom they hold a pact. The stronger the will, the strong the bond between the spirit and the key holder." Virgo's gaze seemed to be boring straight through Lucy. "If you mistreat your spirits, or believe that they are weak, then they will be weak."

"So… you get stronger, the more I believe in you?"

"That is correct. Leo is the strongest of us not only because he is our leader, but because you believe him to be the strongest."

A terrible thought was seizing Lucy, and she felt her heart thudding in her chest. "So… I'm the one that is holding you back? My avatars who aren't as strong… it's because I don't believe in them enough?"

Virgo shook her head in vigorous denial. "No, Princess. An avatar has a base strength, but we also reflect the will of the key holder. The more we are used, the stronger we become. The more time we spend together, the greater our bond will grow."

"I wish I could summon all of you all the time, then," Lucy said, and resumed walking. "But that would be selfish. You have your own lives in the Celestial Realm."

Virgo said nothing as they continued down the road, until Natsu stirred.

"Ugh, I'll get you Loke~" he muttered, then glanced down to see that he was being carried by the Maiden of the Zodiac.

A familiar look of nausea immediately came over his face.

"Virgo isn't a vehicle!" Lucy shrieked at him. "Argh! Put him down, I guess."

Standing on his own two legs, although a bit wobbly, Natsu immediately looked better.

"Did I win at least?" he said, finally standing up straight and trying to pop a kink out of his neck.

"Nope," Lucy said, and suddenly she was really proud of herself. "Loke and you punched each other out. Since I was the last one standing, I won." She gave him a big smirk full of Fairy Tail pride.

"No way! If we both punched each other out it was totally a draw!"

"That's not what the professor and Susan concluded," Lucy sang. Mavis, he was so cute when he was frustrated!

"Fight me again!"

"No," Lucy said simply.

"C'mon Lucy, summon Gemini or that horse guy. Someone weak! I want to beat them!"

Lucy shook her head. "_All_ of my avatars could beat you in a fight."

If the strength of the Celestial spirits really was dependent on her will, the least she could do was believe in their strength.

"Lucy!" Natsu wailed, and then suddenly stilled. His nose quivered in the air, as if he was a bunny rabbit.

"What is it, Natsu?"

The dragon slayer's exquisitely sensitive nose twitched again.

"I think I smell our bandit from before," he said, and pointed down the road. "In fact, I'm sure it's him."

* * *

**Sorry for dropping off the face of the Earth! I graduated, quit my job, went on a cruise, and got hired for a new job... all in the space of a crazy month and a half. I've also been doing a lot of beta work for folks ^_^ So a ~wave~ to newserkrzz and woolums!**

**There is one more nice fat chapter planned for this. I promise not to take nearly as long this time.**


	5. Electric Lemons

**And of course, a lemon is the most common and most tart of all the citrus fruits. Lemon juice is acidic and thus, when combined with a metal that has electric potential, can produce electricity. That is, there's sparks inside every lemon, just waiting to come out.**

* * *

Natsu snapped fully awake from his spot on Virgo's back, and clambered down her.

"Well, crap," Lucy muttered, staring at their nemesis who was still just a spot in the road. She grabbed Natsu and dragged him into the bushes, grateful that his early warning detector nose had allowed them to sense their prey before the prey saw them.

"I'm gonna really beat him up this time," Natsu said, snorting fire and looking vengeful.

"You're probably not at full magic capacity yet," Lucy said, shaking her head. "Although I'm almost full again." The professor did seem to be right about her magic refreshing more quickly than others, at least when she wasn't seriously injured. "We need a plan."

A thought was tapping against the inside of her head, trying to get her attention. She closed her eyes and focused on it, and suddenly remembered what Cana had told her – alcohol is a mild poison, and poisons can prevent sleep spells.

"Virgo," she said to her most resourceful spirit, "I need sake or beer or wine. Or better yet, whiskey."

"Is this really the time for a drink, princess?" Virgo asked calmly.

"This is absolutely the best time," Lucy said, narrowing her eyes at the pervy bandit who was approaching them ever more closely, whistling. What luck for them that he had decided to start robbing from Bristlecone at the same time they were here!

Virgo winked out to go find some stiff drinks from the celestial realm. In the meantime, Lucy summoned Gemini, and made a clone of herself.

A plan, a plan…

"I'm back, princess." Virgo held a tray with what appeared to be two perfectly prepared martinis on it. Lucy grimaced and grabbed one for herself, and quickly handed the other to Natsu.

"What's this…?"

"Drink up," Lucy said, and braced herself to take the bitter liquid in with one shot. She was surprised when instead of vermouth and gin, she found herself drinking what tasted like fruit punch. The green blob instead wasn't an olive, but a grape.

"It's a distilled wine from the Celestial Realm we call _eaux-de-vie_," Virgo explained. "It was the most potent thing I could find on such short notice."

"Good job!" Lucy regretted having to finish the tasty drink off so quickly, but she was glad that she hadn't been forced to do a whiskey shot.

Natsu, on the other hand, had a grimace on his face. "Waaaaay too sweet," he complained.

"Chug it like a man!"

She could feel the alcohol in her system – she was much more of a lightweight than Cana – but the few ounces of the precious liquid were just enough to make her more alert and aware.

"Okay. Virgo, Gemini – I need you two to head down the road. "Pervy bandit will recognize you – me – and probably try to subdue you and do…" she shuddered, "_things_ to you. In the meantime, Natsu and I will come from behind while you distract him." She looked sternly at her partner, who was enrapt in her explanation. "This time, I want you to knock him out cold, Natsu."

He gave a terse nod, and she could tell he was one more battle cry away from his signature "all fired up!" line.

"He's going to try to charm you," she warned her avatars. "I'll force your gates closed if he succeeds. But," and here Lucy took a deep breath, "I believe in you and I _think_ that this time my avatars will be immune to puppetry spells!"

Sometimes that fight on Galuna Island with Taurus still rankled her. Strong Celestial Mages were supposed to have absolute control over their avatars. And yet she had lost control of Taurus instantly.

"You can count on us!" Gemini-Lucy said cheerfully.

The two avatars stepped onto the road, trying to look as though they were just another rich girl and her maid out for a stroll. The pervy bandit was rapidly approaching, but after he spotted Virgo and Gemini, he gave no indication that he recognized "Lucy."

"Good afternoon," Virgo said to him politely once he was in an appropriate distance.

"Gemini, act cautious. This is the guy that took possession of your body not two days ago," Lucy thought hard. The avatar could hear her thoughts when they shared a form.

"Shit," Gemini said, taking a few steps back. "It's you!" She pointed a shaky finger at their target.

"Princess, what is wrong?" Virgo said on cue.

"My my, what a coincidence to bump into such lovely ladies on the road. We meet again, my pretty blonde one."

The real Lucy and Natsu had circled around them in the woods, taking advantage of the noise of conversation to move undetected.

"_This_ is the guy that made me kiss Natsu! How gross!" Gemini said, trying to sound as disgusted and horrified by the memory as she could.

"It wasn't that bad!" Lucy hissed aloud, knowing that Natsu could hear the whole conversation.

Natsu said nothing, but he gave a little smirk. No, it hadn't been bad at all.

Lucy's hormones suddenly remembered just _how_ "not bad" it had been, and then all it took was a single glance at Natsu – his bare arm glinting with muscles in the afternoon sunlight – for her libido to kick back into overdrive again. Damn aphrodisiac!

They emerged back onto the road in time to see the pervy bandit trying to charm both Virgo and Gemini. The two avatars were resisting quite well – Lucy was proud to see that they were already that much stronger compared to where they had been just a few months ago.

"Ready?" she asked Natsu.

"Always," he said, and punched one flaming fist into the other palm.

"Go."

They took off together, all pretense of silence gone as they built up the necessary momentum for their attacks.

The pervy mage turned around and blinked when he saw the second Lucy, along with Natsu this time. He raised his staff and started to cast a different spell.

"Slee-, "he managed to croak out, before he was cut short.

"Fire Dragon's Fist!"

"Lucy kick!"

Their simultaneous attack was too much for him, and he was knocked out flat.

Lucy dismissed Gemini after giving her doppelganger a high five. "Virgo?" she said aloud, panting as she caught her breath.

"Yes, princess?"

"Punish this guy."

* * *

Sometime late they resumed their trip back to the town proper. Taurus followed behind Lucy carrying a bound and gagged bandit – Virgo had taken a certain relish in ensuring that the outlaw would not be able to see, hear, or speak. In fact, he could barely breathe, probably, although she'd left his nose free against her better judgment. To put it bluntly, she'd trussed him like a turkey.

Virgo had also found the flask that contained the liquid he had splashed Lucy with, and Lucy was taking that for herself. She wanted to know what it really was, and surely there was a mage in this research town that could figure out what was actually in it. It didn't look like she was going to get the opportunity to ask the bandit directly any time soon.

They dropped the bandit's sorry ass off at the city police station, and collected a receipt for the bounty they'd missed out on a few days before. They'd get that from the city of Harjuan tomorrow.

"He's a wily one," Lucy warned. "Approach him with gas masks."

The booking officer raised an eyebrow, but nodded. They'd probably have to call in the Magic Council to deal with him anyway – the local police was only really equipped to deal with the civilian, non-magical population.

A grunt from the pervy bandit caught their attention, and three officers rushed in to gingerly remove the duct tape that had been placed over his mouth.

"Where the fuck am I?" he muttered after he was freed. "Stop pulling my arms so hard." It was Virgo's scarily practiced bondage that was pulling him, not the people, but he obviously had no memory of his capture.

"You're in the Bristlecone City Jail," the booking officer said sternly. "You're under arrest for theft, magical crimes against civilians, assault, battery, and resisting citizen's lawful arrest."

"Now you face justice!" Natsu crowed, standing proudly with his arms crossed. "All that stuff sounds really really bad. Cuz you're a bad guy!"

"Oh, whatever," the pervy mage said. Lucy could see him trying to find a capsule in his mouth, no doubt sleeping gas, but Virgo had also stoically searched the bandit for such things before they'd arrived. Which is why Lucy now held his mysterious flask.

"What did you splash me with the other day?" she asked him. "I'm the mage you attacked in Harjuan."

"Heh, blondie. What do you mean, splashed you? You mean the water I threw at your face? Just water, officer," the blindfolded man said easily. "The little girl is upset about some water."

Water….

She held up the flask, and unscrewed the top. She gave a sniff. It was odorless.

"Natsu, smell this," she said, and handed it to her partner.

The dragon slayer obliged and gave it a long, thoughtful sniff. Then another one. He made a face for a brief second, but then shook his head.

"Water. Pretty gross water, but just water."

Lucy could feel her face burning a bright crimson. She hadn't been splashed with an aphrodisiac?

All these hormones and feelings… they were just a product of her own imagination? Or worse, they were her _own actual feelings_ for Natsu?!

"Natsu, let's go," she said suddenly, and grabbed his hand. "Thanks for the assist, officers!" She waved hurriedly goodbye to the police station crew, giving one final glare to the pervy bandit, and then high tailed it out of there, dragging Natsu behind her.

"Where are we going, Lucy?" Natsu asked.

"To the hotel," she said. "We have a lot to talk about."

* * *

By talk, Lucy meant that as soon as they'd checked into their hotel room, she was shoving Natsu toward the bed, no longer willing to hold back the tide of desire that had rocked her for the last few days.

It was still the bandit's fault that she felt this way, but only because of the kiss he'd caused her to share with Natsu. He'd intended to merely embarrass them – and he'd succeeded – but he'd also apparently shown Lucy that everything she'd ever wanted in a man was right beside her all along.

"Lucy?"

Natsu barely squeaked her name out before she was climbing on top of him, kissing him fiercely.

He was so hot and so hard and wonderful beneath her. Aphrodisiac or not, she wanted nothing more than to strip him down to bare skin and impale herself on him. Oh Mavis, just the thought of it was making her whimper and mewl.

She broke the kiss, gasping.

"Are you okay, Lucy?" he asked. Stupid oblivious dragon slayer.

"Shut up Natsu, I'm having my way with you now."

To drive this point home, she began to rapidly undo the buttons on his shirt. He watched her with a mixture of frank curiosity and rapt attention, as if what she was doing was the single most important thing that had happened to him in months. Maybe years.

She flung his shirt open, baring those washboard abs she loved so much to her eyes.

"Natsu," she hissed beneath clenched teeth, and ran her fingers up and down his stomach. "I can't help…. I want you," she tried to say, but she was completely overwhelmed by her desire.

"But you have me," he answered simply.

"I want to make love to you, Natsu," she explained, trying not to grow exasperated with his innocence.

"Okay," he said, and grinned at her. "I've always wanted to try that at least once."

How could someone be so damn clueless and so adorable at the same time? If she had things her way, they'd be doing it a _lot_ more than just once.

She would need to prod him into action, it seemed. "Will you… take off my shirt now? We can take turns."

She slid off him, so that she was posed prettily beside him on the bed. He sat up and reached over to take off the tiny heart shaped shirt she always wore. Despite his cheerful bravado, his hands were shaking. He was _nervous._

"Haven't you ever wanted to do this with someone before?" she asked him, genuinely wondering. "Like Lisanna?"

Natsu's hands stopped.

Lucy immediately regretted the question.

He was giving her a look that was unfathomable. It wasn't hurt or anger, but something else. He seemed to be really thinking hard about his answer. Lucy knew that Lisanna had been precious to him, but she'd never quite understood whether he'd gotten over his childhood sweetheart or not. Or, maybe it was as she'd suspected, and the relationship with Lisanna had been viewed not as a romantic one by Natsu, but simply as a strong friendship.

"Lisanna is very important to me," he started slowly, figuring out the words as he said them. "She is family, just like everyone in Fairy Tail. When I thought I'd lost her, I felt like I lost a sister." He shook his head. "But I've never wanted to…. do anything like _this_ with her."

He seemed to notice that his hands were resting against her breasts, still clutching the fabric where he'd unlatched it.

"You're the first person I've wanted this way as well," Lucy admitted. She'd had plenty of crushes, and lots of failed dates, but Natsu was the only one who had made her blood sing and her lower bits quiver quite the way they were now.

That matter settled, Natsu resumed unfastening her shirt. She had one of her good bras on (women of a certain bust size always designate "good" bras versus the worn out ones where the underwire had snapped and been removed), and although it was nothing he hadn't seen before, Natsu stopped and stared at her chest.

And then he leaned forward and gave her another motorboat.

All the tension in the room dissolved as Lucy fell back onto the bed in a heap of giggles as Natsu buried his face in her bra, making the funny noises.

"Help me get this off," Lucy gasped, and tried to get the straps off her shoulders.

"Nuh-uh, I'm having too much fun right now," Natsu argued in between raspberries.

"For someone clueless about sex, you sure do like boobs," she muttered, exasperated.

"Oh, I _love_ boobs," he affirmed, pausing in his motor boating. "But Igneel said that I wasn't supposed to touch them unless I got permission, or it was an emergency."

She thought back to when he covered her breasts during the Grand Magic Games – his expression had been so serious. Maybe he _had_ considered it an emergency.

"Well, I'm giving you all the permission you need, and I want you get help me get this bra off."

Natsu reached around and grabbed the clasp. By some stroke of luck he managed to get it right (Cana was always complaining about men who didn't know how to take off bras) and her breasts fell free and heavy.

Natsu sighed blissfully, pushed her down onto the bed, and buried his face between them.

Lucy closed her eyes and enjoyed the attention he was giving her for a few moments, but she was feeling greedy and wanted more. She wanted to touch all of him, and have him touch all of her too.

Instinctively, she ground up against his hips, and felt his erection there, firm. Instantly, her blood sang in response. She felt things in her pelvis quiver in anticipation.

"Natsu," she moaned.

"Can I… see the rest of you?" he asked tentatively, breaking away from where he had been suckling her nipple.

"Please," she said, and reached down to try to wriggle out of her skirt. He helped her, and was about to dive back into her cleavage, but she held him back. "You too," she said, trying to sound firm and commanding, but somehow sounding strange and throaty instead.

For the first time during the last ten minutes, Natsu blushed. But he complied, and took off his pants and boxers so that they were both completely naked.

Lucy looked at him greedily. There were those tight abs she loved so much. Thick ropey muscles lined his arms and his legs, but his was a lean, toned physique – all working muscle, none for show. Natsu's physical strength was only rivaled by his magical powers.

"Since Igneel told you about breasts," she said softly, "did he tell you about… the other stuff?"

"A little," Natsu said, scratching his head and looking really uncomfortable. "I asked where babies came from and he told me, but also said I wouldn't have to worry about it until I was older."

Lucy reached out to touch one of his legs. "You're older now."

He smiled finally, giving her that giant grin that always took her breath away. "I guess I am!"

And now he wouldn't let her say another word, because he reached forward and kissed her solidly. It seems that he was finally getting used to the idea of sex.

He gave her a flurry of kisses along her jaw and her neck, and when his mouth reached her ear, she squealed and twisted beneath him.

"Huh, I didn't know ears could be so sensitive," he said. "I wonder if there are any other parts of you that do that!"

"Natsu- oh!"

It turns out that the back of her neck, the base of her spine, just above her hip bone, and behind her knees all turned her in to a quivering pile of jelly. Lucy felt helpless to do anything but accept his quest to find all the erogenous zones that worked on her, because each time he found a new one she'd end up twitching and moaning, unable to do anything except flail at him.

And of course, he found the most potent spot of them all after that, and for Lucy it was all over. Just a few flicks of his inexperienced tongue and she was gripping the sheets, gasping for breath and dealing with the fact that her blood had just been turned to liquid fire.

It wasn't her first orgasm, but it was the first one that had involved another human being and not just her overactive imagination in her dreams.

"You okay, Lucy?" he murmured huskily next to her ear.

It took her a few moments to choke out, "Yes."

He kissed her again, gently, cradling her as he mounted her. She snapped out of her daze just in time to cast a quick contraceptive spell, a handy thing that Cana had taught her one drunken and embarrassing evening. It wasn't fool proof, but then again the only fool proof method was not having sex at all, and it was getting a little too late to stop that now.

"You smell so good," he murmured. "I hope I'm doing this right."

Natsu, it seems, was running on little more than instinct at this point, but dragon slayers are pretty good at trusting their instincts. He was poking around, and Lucy would have giggled at the thought if she wasn't still drunk off her orgasm and eager for him to have his own.

Finally he seemed to find the right spot, and she was so slick that he entered without much resistance. Lucy still felt it – large and alien and male and a slight stinging that followed, but it wasn't nearly as bad as she'd heard and she was rather relieved about that.

"I'm so happy, Natsu," she said on a sigh, and he began to move in and out of her. No more words were necessarily.

They've had this potential for a long time, she thought dreamily as he made love to her. Unresolved sexual tension, they called it. They'd had it in spades. Well, it was finally getting resolved, and it felt _wonderful._

This time Natsu finished, and she smiled gently and cradled him as he practically passed out on top of her, breathing heavily. A sweat drop trickled off his nose.

He looked at her, his eyes hooded and his mouth slack. Gone was the signature grin and the sparkle of adventure in his eyes. It was replaced with something cooler, more adult.

He disengaged wordlessly and rolled off, lying flat on his back next to her. She reached down and grabbed his hand, amazed at how such a simple contact could be stronger than the physical connection they'd shared just minutes before.

He spoke slowly after a while. Lucy could tell he had been thinking hard about what had happened between them.

"Now I kind of understand why Gray and Laxus and the other guys talk about doing this all the time," he said.

She sat up on one elbow so she could look at his face. "It _is_ rather nice," she said, feeling that "nice" was such an inadequate word for everything she felt about Natsu.

Natsu just smiled at her, the grin on his face returning although not completely replacing the newfound maturity in his eyes.

"Yeah," he agreed. "That was nice."

* * *

The duo returned to Magnolia the next day after a brief trip to Harjuan, both looking significantly worse for the way. Much to Lucy's horror, she had learned that Natsu's own libido, now that it had been awakened, was nearly insatiable. He was ready to go again less than an hour later, something she'd heard was just… _impossible_ for men. And he wanted to experiment and try all sorts of wacky positions he'd seen in magazines. He had no sense of privacy, either, which is why she'd found herself taken up against the wall in the bathroom on the train when it had stopped for a brief twenty minute layover at one station, then again in an alleyway in Harjuan. (Exhausting him sexually did seem to quell his travel nausea a little, so she didn't fight too much.)

They walked into the guild, slightly more flushed and sticky than she would have liked, and she was relieved that none of the other dragon slayers were around. They'd definitely be able to … smell their activities.

"Here you go, Kinana," Lucy said, slapping down the complete mission sheets on the bar. "Here's one for the record books. We finished two missions on this trip – our Harjuan thief as well as the work for the university. We got our guy and got our money, too!"

And got plenty busy, her mind added.

"That's great," Kinana said, giving them her usual gentle smile. She pulled out the "Completed" stamp, marked each of them, and set the mission broadsheets aside to be filed with the Magic Council later. "I'm sure Master Makarov and everyone else will be happy as well. The usual for you two?"

"Did I hear you finished the mission? Did you bring me a fish ~?" Happy said, swooping down from the rafters.

Natsu grabbed the paw of his friend in greeting, and then pulled out a package. "We sure did! Eat it fast cuz it came all the way from Harjuan, though."

"Hooray!" Happy said, and absconded with his favorite treat.

"Hmmm," Lucy said, her eyes wide as she watched Happy flit away. "I've got to remember that trick for whenever we want some alone time."

"So, what do you want to do now?" Natsu asked casually, grabbing the flame drink that Kinana had mixed for him. Lucy likewise grabbed her iced tea.

"Well, first I need to pay my rent," Lucy admitted. "Just get that out of the way. Then I was hoping to do a little shopping."

"Eww, girl stuff." Natsu made a face. Then he gave her his thousand watt grin. "You sure you don't want to go back to your apartment so we can play some more?"

Lucy's face reddened immediately. At least he'd taken her advice and used a euphemism instead of saying "let's fuck like bunnies!" like he had this morning.

"We don't have to do that all the time," she hissed, blushing down to her toes.

"Sure we do! In fact, let's go do it right now!"

Before she could protest, he grabbed her hand and dragged her off to the side hallway where the closet they'd made out in was. She squeaked in horror, terrified of being seen, but if anyone in the nearly empty guild had noticed them ducking into the supply closet together, they wisely chose not to say anything.

It seems Natsu was intent on exploring every avenue of their potential together, and she loved him enough to let him.

* * *

**And we're finally done! Man, it's hard to write a realistic lemon sometimes.**

**Thanks for all the reviews and encouragement to finish this story! Please look forward to my next story, which is probably going to be something Mavis/Zeref that will likely be shredded by canon someday (but I don't care, I like the idea of them as a tragic couple. And maybe I'll get lucky like I did with Bachana!)**

**Here's to NaLu becoming canon one day soon, too :)**


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